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Page 9
Monday • September 30, 1996
ad bicyclists should hit the roads Kiss and don’t tell
of danger. Like the breathing of Jason
could be ink® ^or the screeching in Psycho, the sound
ledes the horror.
Ithough not in view, the presence of the
linal is felt. Anxiety builds, fearing —
ring— something is about to happen,
e make mistals person is about to become another vic-
13ut youngpe® Dfahit-and-pedal.
make mistakes (■cyclists are a nuisance and a hazard on our
hem off. We need pus. The reckless road hogs have no
boundaries. Sidewalks
Assistant
inion Editor
mbei
>uld be the 5,11'
hat’s because of
nings it tookani
ears it took. Ip
tion out of that"
ks the career stri
jin Fitzgerald
or political science
ay be tough to b ^ English major
lange and attiu;
m time to i
and streets are constant
ly molested by pedaling
K \A/|TJ]’ inion tailor adversaries, endanger-
I Will U— ing the safety of pedes
trians, motorists, other
bicyclists and them
selves. They have
roamed this campus
freely for too long. It is
time to take action re
stricting obstructive bi
cycle menaces.
Giving them the ben
efit of the doubt, let’s as
sume bicyclists are just
morons and don’t realize
change, ^errors. Since the majority of bicychsts on
said. “Tk campus apparently do not understand the
k was a ill :ept of compound words, here's a lesson for
■ when youli ipandex-wearing, padded butts: Com-
iji four-mankj ndwords unite the meanings of two words.
1 tions and ffi sample, “sidewalk” is a compound word
to get comps lejoining of the words side and walk,
games, li: ce, walk on the side.
1 people areia very day, Aggies traveling on foot suffer
py if fM sions with bicycles because of the igno-
startergeisfi :eand recklessness of bicyclists. There is
or six inninp ilutely no reason a bicyclist needs to ride
es again, you miji ugh main campus. No destination on this
ie who would pin ipusisso far that a st udent cannot arrive to
1 with thatstyleili sin the allotted 20 minutes by simply walk-
it. But 1 think iu through Main Campus. For devout bike
fall.” rs,long distances, such as from Zachary to
mer teammates,! )erg, can be reached by riding in bike lanes,
Scott and lose Cm nounting when cutting
ceremonies honoiii isspedestrian thorough-
the Astros’ season: s,and remounting where
ie Florida Mark fer bike lane begins.
lowever, even if a bicyclist
■ ■ pi eto solely ride in bike
I HQ jy* ies,pedestrian safety would
1B B B ** v n Ibeatrisk because dumb-
sonbicycles don’t realize
^ QO C At (Fiuust follow traffic laws.
^ ^•*wv®:; Sa n safety is in jeop-
I'ai every crosswalk. Al-
. "crosswalk” is also a
3reg Colbrunniv ipound word, “stop” is not.
ad the bases. Il» leitheris“one way.” Oddly, Aggie motorists
Todd lones hit)
Alvin Mormanai
first pitch throitt
o center field,
n hit his first
id Andy LarkiiU
its over five i
rlins a 2-1 lead.:
it in the sixth
the president were to go on televi-
e after Moutonst ,j on anc j te jj Americans to eat more
it to third on W
1 up a first-innii
wed only one ol
h third based
n five innings,
alked four,
ond-inning ho®
ins an early 2
molds, who a
struck out three®
before leaving
crained right groi
arted wild and it®
he first inning
i, went to secorf
gle to center
er walked, stole*
ed on Jeff Bag"
ie first inning.
rson,
/ire join
mer clti
Cyclists are a
nuisance and a
hazard on our
campus. The
reckless road
hogs have no
boundaries.
pedestrians must follow the “look both ways
before crossing” rule on one-way streets because
of illicit bicyclists. Ironically, so
must the bicyclists. While endan
gering pedestrians and motorists,
they are also a threat to other bicy
clists and themselves. Bike riders
never appear to know which way
to go to avoid obstacles — like
each other. With front wheels and
handle bars wobbling from side to
side, their indecisiveness causes
accidents. However, the pleasure
gained from watching spokes and
wheels mangling together is not
great enough to justify bicychsts
riding rampandy across campus.
Many students may not consider this a prob
lem of great concern, probably because they
have not had the pleasure of being wiped out by
a demonic, speed-crazed cyclist. However, oth
ers, such as former student FFillary Lampson, ex
perienced four collisions and numerous close
calls during her undergraduate career.
Everyone’s day will come if action is not tak
en. Texas A&M administrators should regulate
the acts of perilous bicycle riders. Wherever
there are pedestrian thoroughfares and malls,
there should be signs designating dismount ar
eas. Then, the University Police Department
should strictly enforce traffic laws for bicyclists
by ticketing violators. Until that day arrives, the
bike-fearing pedestrians of Texas A&M must be
content with finding delight in watching a cy
clist wipe out on wet cement.
S chool officials in
Lexington, N.C.,
should take a re
fresher course on what
it means to be a kid.
By failing to ade
quately justify their
punishment of a 6-year-
old’s actions, they re
vealed how easily adult
fears can be inappropri
ately used to formulate
school policy.
Last week, Jonathon
Prevette, a first-grader
at Southwest Elementary School
in Lexington N.C., kissed a fellow
female classmate on the cheek —
upon her request.
The principal consequently
punished him by placing Prevette
in another classroom by himself
for “violation of the general school
rule which prohibits unwarranted
and unwelcome touching of one
student by another.”
Because of his forced absence,
he also missed out on an ice-cream
party recognizing students with
good attendance records. The
school’s justification was that Pre
vette had violated school policy
with his “inappropriate behavior.”
Inappropriate behavior may
have occurred in the school that day.
However, it was not Prevette’s ac
tion, but the school’s reaction to the
situation. Rather than using com
mon sense, the administrators acted
on their own adult fears of “unwel
come behavior” in the workplace.
Perhaps the administrators
feared that Prevette’s kiss would re
sult in a burdensome learning envi
ronment for his fellow classmate.
I’ve yet to see, however, a per
son who has been forced to go
through years of counseling for be
ing kissed after requesting some
one to do so, especially in the first
grade. The little girl would proba
bly have been more messed up if
Prevette said “no way.”
Although the school officially
denies that its actions were based
on fears of sexual harassment, the
measures taken imply that policy
was more important than the pu
rity of the 6-year-old’s actions.
The school’s main error was not
in its actions, but in its lack of justi
fication for them. When asked why
he would want to kiss a girl, Pre-
Columnist
Jenni Howard
Senior economics
and international
studies major
vette replied, “Because
you love them and
you’re friends.” It
sounds like the school
stopped the little per
vert just in time.
If schools are going
to consider kissing a
fellow friend on the
cheek a criminal act,
then they have much
work to do to combat
this erosion of class
room etiquette.
First, they would
have to launch a campaign
against all stores carrying those
obscene little posters with chil
dren dressed up in grown-up’s
clothes who are holding hands,
hugging, or even (gasp!) kissing
each other.
Second, they would have to in
corporate into their so-called poli
cy an equal rights amendment for
all kids with cooties. The terms
“cootie-face” and “cootie-breath”
would have to be reworded so that
they would be politically correct.
And finally, as Jay Leno point
ed out on last Thursday's Tonight
Show, they would have to explain
to those kids why they are dis
couraging the highly unaccept
able behavior of a kiss on the
cheek, while handing out con
doms in school.
The school may have thought it
was acting in the best interest of the
students when punishing Prevette,
but it failed to realize that 6 year-
olds are too young to understand
how showing affection to a friend
could be misinterpreted. The rest of
the world is still trying to under
stand why Prevette was punished.
Elis parents have received tele
phone calls from Ireland and Aus
tralia in support of his plight, and
one man in Florida is sending Pre-
vette$100 to buy ice cream.
It may be difficult for the school
administrators to admit that they
overreacted, but they may have to
do so in order to prevent unneces
sary punishments such as Prevette’s
from occurring in the future. The
school should adjust its policy so
that adult fears of unwelcome be
havior would not be forced upon
children who are too young to even
spell words like sexual harassment,
let alone understand them.
his is your brain on Election Day
Columnist
pinach, chances are not many peo-
would do it.
'inach consumption would remain
constant. The president could read us
Stic after statistic proving that spinach
good for us. But nobody would care,
still wouldn’t touch the stuff,
t’sthe same with drugs,
federal government survey recently
■aled that teen-age experimentation
i marijuana increased from 27 percent
Shannon Halbrook
Junior English major
to 39 percent in 1995. Over the past month or
lepublican presidential nominee Bob Dole has
tihammering away at these numbers and Presi-
tClinton’s record on the “war” on drugs. He claims
J ’ j VClu -ri'rfton and the news media are to blame for rising
nd scored op 1 ! j use °
he statistical jump is a big one. No wonder Dole
tghtit ng he could complain about,
t’strue that the media and the entertainment
ttstry may be partially responsible. If so,
me on them. It’s their job to make money,
fever, not spoon-feed people with values and
[them how to live.
put Dole is trying to place most of the blame
Clinton.
Teenagers, many struggling with the lure of drugs,
eseen a United States president make light of his
i experimentation with drugs,” Dole said. “A presi-
) (AP) — Brady^ ltiss up-
is 50th horned ed to show
Ing Mark McG 1,i! lv ay. This
mer club this s fi sidenthas
iking it only ^ 'vnmoral
that two ph) :f! hision.”
imers in a seast® 1 ie was re-
i hit a 2-2 F ing to Clin-
entgen into® ’srecent ad-
eats. The hoi"! ision to a
this season W up 0 f
me, breaking 1 Hagers that
Je record set' frould use
an 1973. rijuana
jreenberg : in if he had
iTtrLTii chan “-
p . j L: 'Sure, iff could,” Clinton answered with a
any Mize (51)^ ltt y Arkansas laugh. “I tried before.”
d Roger Maris( jl ^ittedly, the president’s statement was
Mantle (54)P® 'fy-Th 0 man just wasn’t thinking about the con-
at in 1961 lances of what he was saying. It was sadly
became the 1^ Mniscent of the time he admitted to a room full
it least 50 ho0' f|i : onservative Houston businessmen that he
played haveco |,, ied their taxes too much,
t a total 211# But that’s exactly why a president or presidential
lid it four tiH ^idate can’t ever expect to hold moral mesmeriza-
inerandMae 1 * foverthe American people.
lc h. Presidents — and presidential candidates — make
. .
goofy statements and do goofy things all
the time. Dole has committed some lulus
himself, like that whole “tobacco-isn’t-all-
that-bad” fiasco.
Presidents are just politicians with
powerful pens. They’re not kings. They’re
not celebrities. They’re not even rich.
And they can’t make us feel obligated to
act a certain way.
If someone comes along who cap
tures some collective national spirit,
then he or she might have some kind of
sway over people’s private choices. But
neither Clinton nor Dole is that popular.
If Dole thinks there’s a magic wand hidden some
where in the presidential podium that he can wave
around and cure social ills, he’s wrong.
On the Sept. 22 episode of This Week With
David Brinkley, Dole adviser and renowned
moral dictator William Bennett tried to convince
viewers that if Dole were elected president, he
could curtail drug use with stern lectures. But af
ter he was prodded a bit by the show’s panel,
Bennett admitted that culture has more influence
over drug use than politics.
He’s right. Politicians can only alter supply by
stepping up law enforcement and checking smug
gling. Dole emphasizes tougher law enforcement
and increased interdiction efforts to cut down on
drug use; he wants to stop the supply.
But according to the survey that spawned all this
talk, only marijuana use is up noticeably. Dole’s pro
posals con
centrate
mainly on the
smuggling of
foreign co
caine and
heroin into
the United
States, and
are moot for
marijuana
since most of
it is grown
domestically.
Meanwhile,
even if Clinton could have done more about the drug
problem during the past four years, he still wouldn’t
have been able to affect demand. And even Bill Bennett
knows that demand is what regulates drug use.
Maybe if movies try instead to tell nice polite
suburban stories of crew-cut lawns and Eisenhow-
er-era innocence, drug use will miraculously fall
and society will return to “normal.” It’s possible.
But to think the president “is supposed to show
the way” is grossly inflating the power of the of
fice. All the president does is run the country — he
wields no real moral or spiritual influence over it.
Mail
Stewart scores an
off-field touchdown
Last Saturday night, I was push
ing a stalled truck down the middle
lane of Holleman. Pressed in by
fast moving cars on either side, I
needed help fast.
Right then, an Aggie jumped
from his vehicle and quickly
brought traffic to a stop right at
our turn off. Grateful, I whipped
out first — Bob Santini, Class of
’81. He returned volly — Bran
don Stewart, Class of ’98 — and
then departed. Thanks Ags!
Keep the spirit.
Bob Santini
Class of’81
Don’t horse laugh
the A-G-G-I-E-Ssss
I’m writing to address a small
problem. Now, I am an Aggie. You
are an Aggie. Together we are the
A-G-G-I-E-S, not the A-G-G-I-E-
Ssssssss. Does everyone know what
I’m talking about? If not, then you
haven’t been to yell practice or the
games in the last few years.
As far back as I can remember,
that hissing sound after the “S” is
not part of the “Aggies” yell. First,
it sounds like you’re giving the
“horse laugh” to the Aggies, and
as we all know, the “horse laugh”
is the polite, Aggie equivalent of
booing. Second, that sound is just
downright annoying.
Harry Love
Class of’96
A&M women offer
integrity & wisdom
Regarding Bryan Goodwin’s
Sept. 24 column and Christine
Tran’s Sept. 26 Mail Call:
After reading about people
complaining they can’t find a de
cent member of the opposite sex
to date, I have to raise the ques
tion, “Are these people blind?”
Texas A&M definitely does not
have a shortage of respectable
women to date. The girls I know
truly deserve to stand high upon a
pedestal. Not only are they nice,
witty and considerate, but they
are also intelligent. Yes, despite
what you believe, those qualities
are quite common in females.
Mike Chapman
Class of’00
South Korea needs
democratic allies
Regarding Michael Heinroth’s
Sept. 27 column, “Attack of the Red
Submarine:”
Heinroth’s view that South Ko
rea is a small, backwater country
that no one cares about is wrong.
South Korea is important in
many ways — economically,
strategically and politically. The
United States must take a strong
stand against communism. The
maintenance of 40,000 troops in
South Korea is tactically wise be
cause they provide a detriment to
Communist forces across the bor
der. I am not a war-hawk, and I
do not feel any additional troops
should be deployed or mobilized.
However, we cannot abandon
South Korea.
Perhaps in 20 years South Korea
will stand on its own. If I sound a
bit McCarthyish, sorry, but you
probably haven’t had your home
land overrun by communists.
Wilber Wang
Class of’00
Internet offers busy
signal for its users
The increased need for the In
ternet has put a strain on the re
sources currently available at
Texas A&M.
Students living off-campus
are finding it increasingly diffi
cult to access the Internet due to
the shortage of modems cur
rently available.
It is necessary for students to
get Online. Most professors are
posting their class syllabus, lec
ture notes and grades on their
web pages and are expecting the
students to have access. Neither
students nor faculty can utilize
this improving technology if
they cannot get on-line.
With the increased student
population and the growing need
for the Internet, students often
wait an hour or longer to get On
line. This problem could be alle
viated with the purchase and in
stallation of additional modems.
The $75 computer access fee that
every student pays each semester
should allow them access to the
Internet in a timely manner.
We understand that there are
computers available for student
on campus, but there is often a
long wait to use one.
Josh Morrissey
Class of’97
Christine Burks
Class of’97
The Battalion encourages letters to the
editor. Letters must be 300 words or fewer
and include the author’s name, class, and
phone number.
The opinion editor reserves the right to
edit letters for length, style, and accuracy.
Letters may be submitted in person at 013
Reed McDonald with a valid student ID. Let
ters may also be mailed to:
The Battalion - Mall Call
013 Reed McDonald
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX
77843-1111
Campus Mail: 3111
Fax: (409) 845-2647
E-mail: Batt@tamvml.tamu.edu
For more details on letter policy, please call
845-3313 and direct your question to the
opinion editor.